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Longmont woman's triple berry jam cuts sugar by more than half

By Pam MellskogLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
07/13/2012 04:56:33 PM MDT

Updated:
07/13/2012 05:11:27 PM MDT

Debra Sherrill's mixed-berry, low-sugar jam won first place in the low sugar jam lot at last year's Boulder County Fair and earned one of 25 champion awards out of the 378 total food preservation department entries. (Matthew Jonas/Times-Call)

Prepare waterbath canner, jars and lids according to manufacturer's instructions. Measure ingredients. Combine fruit, fruit juice and lemon juice in an 8-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in measured pectin. Bring mixture to a full, rolling boil, stirring constantly. Then, add the sugar all at once, and return mixture to a full, rolling boil. Boil hard for 1 minute while stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Ladle hot jam into jars, leaving a quarter-inch of headspace. Wipe rims. Apply lids and bands. Adjust to fingertip tight. Place filled jars in canner, ensuring that jars are covered by 1 to 2 inches of water. Place lid on canner. Bring water to a steady boil. Process jars for 20 minutes, which is adjusted for Longmont's altitude. Remove from heat, and let stand for 5 minutes. Remove jars from water, and cool undisturbed for 12 hours.

Yield: six 8-ounce jars or 12 4-ounce jars of jam

Source: Adapted by Debra Sherrill from BallJudges score jam on characteristics that include flavor, firmness, texture and even appropriate headspace between the lid and the jam in the jar.

LONGMONT -- Though a homemaker at heart, Debra Sherrill never attempted to make homemade jam because she knew that traditional recipes often require a cup of sugar for every cup of fruit.

"I was put off by that amount of sugar. I have a daughter who is eight, and I don't need to sugar her up any more than she already is," Sherrill, 45, said.

Taking a food preservation class in 2011 from Stephanie Estreen, a food safety adviser with the Colorado State University Extension Office in Longmont, changed all of that.

There, Sherrill learned how to make low-sugar jams and soon created her own low-sugar jam -- one tasty enough to bring home ribbons from the Boulder County Fair last summer. She won first place in the fair's 2011 low-sugar jam lot and earned a champion ribbon awarded to 25 of the 378 food preservation department entries for the high quality of her low-sugar jam.

"I think I got all the accolades because I didn't use any artificial sweeteners," she said.

Instead, Sherrill selected a naturally sweet frozen fruit blend of blueberries, marionberries and raspberries packaged by Kirkland and sold at Costco.

Using frozen berries appealed to her because someone picked the fruit at the height of its ripeness, and she could make the jam year-round.

Then she bought Ball's low-sugar pectin product that came with a basic low-sugar jam recipe on the label. That gave her a template to use 11/2 cups of sugar with her triple berry blend versus the usual 4 cups.

To make the recipe her own, she tinkered with the directions by stirring and boiling the product a tad more.

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